It's official: robotics scientists are now just daring the things to kill us. An Aberdeen University have built a robot programmed to fulfill one objective no matter what, to evolve in order to do so, and to make use of extra materials when they're available. We're assuming the only reason they didn't call it "Terminator" is because they don't have enough to kill all the MGM lawyers. Yet.

You know how it took organics, hereafter referred to as "puny
fleshlings", millions of years to learn to walk on two legs? The
Incremental Evolutionary Algorithm (IEA) equipped robot learned in less
than a day. When the research team added knees to the legs it
re-learned, making use of what it had already learned about hips.

The robot uses a neural network to iterate solutions to problems. The
evolutionary aspect is how it can just "decide" to add more neurons
whenever the situation changes. The addition of new joints, limbs or
even senses just creates a bigger, smarter and more-able-to-see-you
robot. It can also lock itself into a specific configuration when it
decides things are as good as they're going to get and unlock again as
needed.

The system does have a weakness: if it tries to learn too fast,
learning new behaviours with its whole brain instead of the newly
created sections, it demands too much computing power and grinds to a
halt. And that means we're safe forever, because it's not like
computers ever increase in power.

Team leader Christopher MacLeod is now working on a system where the
robot can not only adapt to new bodies, but learn to instruct its human
slaves, sorry, "creators" in how many limbs and other components it
feels it needs. We can only hope they know to say "no" when this list
includes a Remington 1100 Autoloader, an Uzi 9 millimeter, and a phased
plasma pulse laser in the forty watt range.

Hmm.. somehow I can't help but think this is an exageration of the success of this project.
I would love to read the original publication however the reality of the incompleteness of the research is kept for engineers only who have access to it.
It's stupid reports like this that has people thinking a robot like in the movies is only a couple of years away. HAHAHAHAHAHA....

Please include what institute Dr.(?) MacLeod is working from and a link to the white paper discribing this algorythm. You have given a very poor article which lacks in specifics. I am unable to find any reference to this project, who it is for, and who exactly is doing it.

or.. Pics or it didn't happen!

(Actually, I would like to contact them in regards to my own research in this area)

For the record, a forty watt laser is nothing to sneeze at. You can easily light a cigarette with a 0.2 watt laser; depending on the width of the beam a 40 watt laser can do quite a bit of burning/cutting. It may not be enough to slice your arm right off or anything, but lets just say I'd hit the deck if someone started waving one of those things around.